"Canonical has announced the availability of the first Ubuntu 10.04 beta release. The new version of Ubuntu, codenamed Lucid Lynx, is scheduled to arrive in April. It will be a long-term support release, which means that updates will be available for three years on the desktop and five years on servers. Although the Ubuntu developers have largely focused on boosting stability for this release, they have also added a number of noteworthy new features and applications. One of the most visible changes is the introduction of a new theme - a change that is part of a broader rebranding initiative that aims to update Ubuntu's visual identity." It might just be me, but I find the new theme ghastly. Compare this to this (my desktop). Oh, and Metacity - I can has anti-aliasing?

Yeah, while I love the fact that someone starts shipping a dark theme as the default I am not sure a LTS release is the right time to do it the first time. Dark themes still have lots of issues, because all OS are light and a lot of apps and websites are not tested with dark themes.
Same with the title bar widgets .. those shouldn't change in a LTS release.

So yeah for innovation, boo for doing it when people expect continuity.